This invention generally pertains to fire suppression systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a fire suppression system for a building roof and an attic underneath the roof.
The invention is particularly applicable to fire suppression systems for wood shake, or shingle roofs. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, that the invention has broader applications and may also be adapted for use in many other fire suppression environments.
Commercial and industrial buildings are not solely dependent upon a community's local fire department as are residential areas. Business-type buildings are normally equipped with fire suppression systems and regularly conduct fire drills. Moreover, larger institutions usually maintain their own fire fighters and the necessary fire fighting equipment.
Unlike buildings of a commercial or industrial nature, however, residential buildings are almost never equipped with fire suppressant systems. This despite the fact that every residential dwelling is somebody's home and almost every item in the home is irreplaceable--the occupants, and the posessions--such as photograph albums and mementos and the like.
Wood shakes and shingles are frequently used in residential areas as roofing materials due to their attractive appearance. Usually such shakes or shingles are made of untreated cedar which dries out and becomes extremely flammable a few years after installation. Even when such shakes are treated with a fire suppressant chemical before installation, the shakes still dry out in a few years and become quite flammable. Such roofs in the drier southwestern and western areas of the United States are frequently dangerous fire hazards.
Wood shake roofs used on multi-unit residential dwellings in the dry regions of the sunbelt, such as in southern California, where numerous brush fires burn every year, are particularly dangerous. For example, in April, 1982 a 364 unit apartment complex in Anaheim, Calif. was destroyed by fire after a spark generated from lightning that struck a major electrical transformer started the cedar shake roofs of the apartment complex on fire. The complex had burned to the ground by the time the fire department arrived. Another fire related disaster occurred in Dallas in March of 1983. A large apartment complex having over 850 units was partially destroyed by fire when a faulty wiring system shorted out in the ceiling joists of one of the buildings and the sparks ignited the wood shingled roof. The flames spread quickly to all the roofs of the apartment complex and by the time the fire department arrived, 200 units of the complex had burned to the ground. There were also numerous injuries to firefighters and tenants, luckily, none were life threatening.
Southern California is plagued by brush fires attacking single family residences. In July 1985, in Baldwin Hills, a fashionable area of Los Angeles, a brush fire swooped down on a neighborhood of single family residences roofed with cedar shake shingles. The neighborhood was instantly ablaze. A couple of hours later, as the fire fighters doused the last smoldering embers, the neighborhood was in shambles. A total of 105 single family residences were lost and the lives of three residents were lost as well. In November of 1988, another brush fire struck Baldwin Hills. High winds of 40 to 50 miles per hour attacked and ignited the shingle roof of a single residence and the roof exploded into flame thereby igniting several nearby residential structures. By the time the fire fighters had arrived, four homes, each valued at $500,000-700,000 were destroyed.
It is believed that brush fires and the like which plague Southern California and are driven by the high velocity Santa Ana winds, constitute approximately 25% of the overall number of fire hazards afflicting wood shingle or shake roofs. The other 75% of the fires are caused by various factors such as lightning bolts, electrical fires or the like.
While several fire suppression systems are known for buildings and some chemical fire retardant treatment processes are known for wood shake roofs, none of these has been found to be entirely satisfactory in preventing the ignition and burning of wood shake or shingle roofs either in the brush fires which plague Southern California yearly or in accidental fires caused by lightning, electrical sparks or the like. Of course, accidental roof fires also occur in buildings which have asphalt shingle roofs.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved fire suppression system for roofs, such as wood shake and shingle roofs, and the attics underneath them, which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.